Integrated reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers based on cascaded microring resonators

We report on an eight-channel reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer based on cascaded microring resonators with a high tuning power consumption and a compact footprint. Microheaters are fabricated on top of the microring resonators and can be modulated using the thermo-optic effect to achieve the reconfigurable functionality of the device. We demonstrate the reconfigurable add-drop multiplexing functionality for channel spacings of 100 GHz and 50 GHz, with the centre wavelengths of the channels aligned to International Telecommunication Union grid specifications. The crosstalk for channel spacings of 100 GHz and 50 GHz are less than..22:5 dB and..15:5 dB, respectively. The average tuning efficiency is about 4.5 mW/nm, and the response speed is about 13.0 kHz.